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Not so long ago, Ibiza was a very different place. A sleepy Balearic island in the shadow of its two bigger brothers, for many decades Ibiza was shaken solely by the excitement of a mammoth fishing haul, or at the very most a minor mayoral coup. But in the middle of the last century, an eclectic rabble of master forgers, disgraced film directors and hedonistic musicians began to seek shelter in the island’s rugged hillsides and untouched beaches.
Since then, Ibiza has become the number one party island in the world, and the surrogate birthplace of an entire musical genre. So, this weekend, why not head across using Fly Victor, a luxury private jet charter service.
For a Friday evening departure, after a dinner in London, you can catch a late flight to Ibiza, head straight to the clubs and arrive at the same time as the DJs. After a couple of days of partying and playing, head back on Sunday afternoon.
For £10,500 you can take the Nextant 400, and for a little more at £14,000 you can go for the slightly larger Citation XLS. Learn more here.
Our recommendation for the discerning Island hopper is the boutique Pikes Hotel. Founded in 1978 by Ibiza royalty Tony Pike, the 500-year old farmhouse soon became both an idyllic sanctuary for the fashion and music elite of the eighties and nineties. Though Tony is still a permanent resident, he passed over the hotel’s hallowed keys to Andy McKay and Dawn Hindle in 2011.
The pair come from serious Ibiza pedigree themselves. After giving birth to Manumission at Ku in the early nineties (at one time the largest club night in the world, and notorious for its live sex shows) Andy and Dawn went on to mastermind Ibiza Rocks, the genre-bending festival that welcomes the biggest bands in the world into the courtyard of the Ibiza Rocks hotel. ‘The name was very tongue-in-cheek,’ Dawn tells me. ‘At the time Ibiza definitely did not ‘rock.’ It certainly seems to now.
Perhaps the most famous restaurant in Ibiza, Las Dos Lunas was opened in 1981 by the Tuscan-born Massimo Lucarini. The restaurant was instrumental in transforming the island into the party paradise it is today – but that was never Massimo’s first intention. ‘It all happened very organically’ he told me. ‘I never thought of having a restaurant in Ibiza – I needed a job and to make money, and so I bought the restaurant.
We didn’t even get a telephone number until 2005; before that it was all word of mouth.’ The provenance of the Italian-Spanish food – combined with the irreplicable family atmosphere of the place – soon transformed Las Dos Lunas into a revolving door for the Island’s grandees. ‘We used to host dinners and parties for Freddie Mercury, Frank Zappa, Grace Jones, Mick Jagger – even the King of Spain!’
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